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PRC Pictures, Inc.
Producers Releasing Corporation was the smallest and least prestigious of the Hollywood film studios of the 1940s. It was considered a prime example of what was called " Poverty Row": a low-rent stretch of Gower Street in Hollywood where shoestring film producers based their operations. However, PRC was more substantial than the usual independent company that made only a few low-budget movies and then disappeared. PRC was an actual Hollywood studio -- albeit the smallest -- with its own production facilities and distribution network, and it even accepted imports from the UK. PRC lasted from 1939 to 1947, churning out low-budget B movies for the lower half of a double bill or the upper half of a neighborhood theater showing second-run films. The studio was originally located at 1440 N. Gower St. (on the lot that eventually became part of Columbia Pictures) from 1936 to 1943. PRC then occupied the former Grand National Pictures physical plant at 7324 Santa Monica Blvd., from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eagle-Lion Films
Eagle-Lion Films was a British-American film production company owned by J. Arthur Rank intended to distribute British productions in the United States. In 1947, it acquired Robert R. Young's PRC Pictures, a small American production company, to produce low-budget features to accompany its British releases. The studio, which was located at 7324 Santa Monica Boulevard (one block away from the Samuel Goldwyn Studios), became a producer of B-movies. Eagle-Lion was also a film distribution company under the name of Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited in the United Kingdom and Eagle-Lion Films Inc. in the United States. In 1954, the film lot was purchased by the Ziv Company for production of its syndicated television programs. It has long since been demolished. History The company was founded in September 1946. From 1946 to 1949, Eagle-Lion was under the control of Arthur B. Krim who, in addition to releasing films by Rank and reissues of David O. Selznick, films produced his own B-m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand National Pictures
Grand National Films, Inc (or Grand National Pictures, Grand National Productions and Grand National Film Distributing Co.) was an American Poverty Row motion picture production-distribution company in operation from 1936 to 1939. The company had no relation to the British Grand National Pictures (although the British firm used the American company's logo). History and releases Edward L. Alperson, a film exchange manager, founded Grand National in 1936 on the basis of First Division Pictures, of which he was on the board of directors. What United Artists was to major independent producers, First Division was to low-budget producers: a convenient releasing outlet for individual pictures, and successful within its own market. In April 1936 Alperson took over First Division's film exchanges, existing product line, and contracts, the company now functioning as Grand National Film Distributing Company. By the summer, he had begun development of a California-based production entity, G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons. Early life Horton was born in Kings County, New York (now Brooklyn, New York City) to Edward Everett Horton, a compositor for ''The New York Times'', and his wife, Isabella S. ( Diack) Horton. His father had English and German ancestry, and his mother was born in Matanzas, Cuba to George and Mary ( Orr) Diack, natives of Scotland. He attended Boys' High School, Brooklyn and Baltimore City College, where he later was inducted into its Hall of Fame. He was a student at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he majored in German. However, he was asked to leave after he climbed to the top of a building and, after a crowd gathered, threw off a dummy, making them think he had jumped. He attended the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn for one year, until the school discontinued its arts cours ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Byrd
Ralph Byrd (April 22, 1909 – August 18, 1952) was an American actor. He was most famous for playing the comic strip character Dick Tracy on screen, in serials, films and television. Early life and career The son of George and Edna May Byrd, Ralph Byrd was born in Dayton, Ohio. Before he began acting in films, he sang and danced in theatrical productions. He served in the United States Army during World War II, having been inducted into the service in San Pedro, California, in 1944. He married actress and model Virginia Carroll in 1936. The couple remained together until Byrd's death in 1952. Byrd was a good, all-purpose actor with a gift for delivering dialogue in a natural, ingratiating way. His screen characters could be breezy and affable or tough and authoritative, as the role required. He debuted in movies with a bit part in ''Red-Headed Woman'' in (1932). Once established in Republic Pictures' Dick Tracy serials (beginning in 1937), he was usually cast in act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frances Langford
Julia Frances Newbern-Langford (April 4, 1913 – July 11, 2005) was an American singer and actress who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and made film and television appearances for over two decades. She was known as the "GI Nightingale", an American armed-forces sweetheart, who entertained troops touring often with Bob Hope. Discovery Langford originally trained as an opera singer. While a young girl she required a tonsillectomy that changed her soprano range to a rich contralto. As a result, she was forced to change her vocal approach to a more contemporary big band, popular music style. At age 17, she was singing for local dances. Cigar manufacturer Eli Witt heard her sing at an American Legion party and hired her to sing on a local radio show he sponsored. Radio After a brief stint in the Broadway musical "Here Goes the Bride" in 1931, she moved to Hollywood, appearing on Louella Parsons' radio show ''Hollywood Hotel'' while starting a movie career. Singing f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Steele (actor)
Bob Steele (born Robert Adrian Bradbury; January 23, 1907 – December 21, 1988) was an American actor. He also was billed as Bob Bradbury Jr.. Early life Steele was born in Portland, Oregon, into a vaudeville family. His parents were Robert North Bradbury and the former Nieta Quinn. He had a twin brother, Bill, also an actor. After years of touring, the family settled in Hollywood in the late 1910s, where his father soon found work in the movies, first as an actor, later as a director. By 1920, Robert Bradbury hired his son Bob and Bob's twin brother, Bill (1907–1971), as juvenile leads for a series of adventure movies titled ''The Adventures of Bill and Bob''. Steele attended Glendale High School but left before graduation. Career Steele's career began to take off in 1927, when he was hired by production company Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) to star in a series of Westerns. Renamed Bob Steele at FBO, he soon made a name for himself, and in the late 1920s, 1930s an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden Crabbe II (; February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimming event, which launched his career on the silver screen and later television. He starred in a variety of popular feature films and movie serials released between 1933 and the 1950s, portraying the top three syndicated comic-strip heroes of the 1930s: Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers. Early life Crabbe was born in 1908 to Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe, a real estate broker, and Lucy Agnes (née McNamara) Crabbe, in Oakland, California. He had a brother, Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe Jr. (1909–1972). Crabbe grew up in Hawaii and graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu. He then attended the University of Southern California, where he was the school's first All-American swimmer (1931) and a 1931 NCAA freestyle titlist. He also bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956. Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902. After playing in 172 different productions in his native Hungary, Lugosi moved on to appearing in Hungarian silent films in 1917. He had to suddenly emigrate to Germany after the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919 because of his former socialist activities (organizing a stage actors' union), leaving his first wife in the process. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horror Movies
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Cinematic techniques used in horror films have been shown to provoke psychological reactions in an audience. Horror films have existed for more than a century. Early inspirations from before the development of film include folklore, religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures, and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of ''Dracula'' (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, slasher films, supernatural horror and psychological horror. The genre has been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill stereotypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality and family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, filmed, or on television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers cues to the audience of the drama being presented. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, ''melodramas'' are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now also applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, films, tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Movie
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a hostile, sparsely populated frontier in a state of near-total lawlessness patrolled by outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other stock "gunslinger" characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, Manifest Destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. History The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. These featured veterans of ''Buffalo Bill's Wild West'' show exhibiting skills acquired by living ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George R
George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States * George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States * George V, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1910-1936 * George VI, King of Great Britain, Ireland, the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 1936-1952 * Prince George of Wales * George Papagheorghe also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George Harrison, an English musician and singer-songwriter Places South Africa * George, Western Cape ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa * George, Missouri * George, Washington * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Characters * George (Peppa Pig), a 2-year-old pig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
